Sequence indicator for command communicated to a sequential access storage device

ABSTRACT

A command is communicated by a computer and received by a sequential storage access device. The command includes a sequence indicator. The sequential storage access device uses the sequence indicator, in a communication path failure recovery operation, to at least determine whether a command has been confirmed by the device driver as being processed by the sequential access storage device.

BACKGROUND

A tape drive may be used for such purposes as storing backup data for acomputer and providing data to the computer in a recovery operation inthe event that the computer experiences data corruption, data loss, andso forth. The tape drive typically reads data from/writes data to mediathat is formed from a strip, or tape, of magnetically sensitivematerial, which is moved by the tape drive's motor relative to the tapedrive's read/write head. In this manner, the read/write head contactsthe tape at different positions as the tape moves relative to the headto read data from or write data to these different positions. The tapedrive is an example of a sequential access storage device: data iswritten to/read from the tape in a sequential fashion from the startingposition to the end of the tape or until the operation is complete.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a computer-based system according to anexample implementation.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram depicting a technique to communicate commandsto a sequential access storage device according to an exampleimplementation.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram depicting a technique used by a device driverof FIG. 1 to include a sequence indicator in a media access commandaccording to an example implementation.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a technique used by the sequentialaccess storage device of FIG. 1 to process commands received from thedevice driver according to an example implementation.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a failover recovery technique used bythe device driver of FIG. 1 according to an example implementation.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a communication path changenotification command according to an example implementation.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram depicting a failover recovery technique used bythe sequential access storage device of FIG. 1 according to an exampleimplementation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, in accordance with example implementations, acomputer-based system includes a computer 10 that, for such purposes asstoring/restoring backup data and other purposes, may access one ormultiple sequential access storage devices, such as a sequential storageaccess device 50 (a tape drive, for example). More specifically, for theexamples, which are disclosed herein, the computer 10 may access thesequential access storage device 50 over a selected communication path,which may be formed in part by a network 40; and this access may involvethe communication of commands and data over the selected communicationpath.

For example, the computer 10 may, via the selected communication path,communicate data to be stored on the sequential storage access device 50and communicate commands to the device 50 for such purposes asinstructing the device 50 to perform actions or inquire about a statusof device 50. As a more specific example, the commands that aregenerated by the computer 10 and communicated to the sequential storageaccess device 50 may include commands to read data from the device 50,erase data from the device 50, write data to the device 50, format mediaof the device 50, rewind media of the device 50, and so forth. Asfurther described herein, the computer 10 may communicate commands tothe sequential storage access device 50. One type of command is anotification to change the selected communication path. The sequentialstorage access device 50 may communicate data and various responses overthe selected communication path to the computer 10 to inform thecomputer 10 about statuses, errors, and so forth.

For purposes of issuing the commands, responding to statuses and, ingeneral, controlling operation of the sequential storage access device50 from the standpoint of the computer 10, the computer 10 includes aset of machine executable instructions, which, when executed by thecomputer 10, form a device driver 36-1.

The device driver 36-1 may communicate with the sequential accessstorage device 50 using one of one or multiple communication paths. Forpurposes of maintaining the computer-based system in a stable state,techniques and systems are disclosed herein to address failover concernsshould the currently selected communication path fail (a fiber opticline may be cut, a switch may fail, and so forth).

The failure of the currently selected communication path may occur at aninopportune time, such as, after the device driver 36-1 issues a commandto the sequential access storage device 50 but before the device driver36-1 receives confirmation from the device 50 that the command wassuccessfully processed by the device 50; during the communication ofdata over the failed communication between the device driver 36-1 andthe device 50; before the device 50 receives a command sent by thedevice driver 36-1; and so forth.

As a more specific example, the driver 36-1 may generate, or issue, awrite command, which is communicated to the network 40 for purposes ofwriting data to the sequential access storage device 50; and thecurrently selected communication path, for this example, may fail beforethe device 50 confirms to the device driver 36-1 that the write commandhas been processed by the device 50. Although the driver 36-1 may, inresponse to the communication path failure, select an alternativecommunication path for communications with the sequential access storagedevice 50, the mere communication or re-communication of the writecommand does not ensure that the device 50 has received and/or actuallyprocessed the write command. Therefore, the position of the sequentialstorage access device's media is undetermined and the device driver 36-1and the sequential access storage device 50 may share different statusesregarding the processing of the write command, if not for the featuresthat are described herein.

In accordance with example implementations that are disclosed herein, topermit failover recovery should the currently selected communicationpath between the driver 36-1 and the sequential access storage device 50fail, the driver 36-1 includes a sequence indicator 64 in each mediaaccess command 60 that is communicated to the device 50. In thiscontext, a “media access command” refers to a command for the sequentialaccess storage device 50, which causes media 58 of the sequential accessstorage device 50 to move or be modified. In this manner, unlike arandom access device, the sequential access storage device 50 cannotjump from one position on the media 58 to a different position withoutfirst properly positioning the media 58 before a media access command 60is executed by the sequential storage access device 50. Therefore, dueto the movement in media position, if the command status shared by thedevice driver 36-1 differs from the command status that is shared by thesequential access storage device 50 after a communication path failure,errors may result due to media position discrepancies.

In accordance with some implementations, whether or not a command is amedia access command 60 depends on the action to be taken by thesequential access storage device 50 in response to completing thecommand. For example. a write attribute command may cause a particularsequential access storage device 50 to write an attribute to its media58 and as such, is considered to be a media access command for thedevice. However, another sequential access storage device 50 may, inresponse to a write attribute command, write an attribute to its flashmemory instead of writing the attribute to its media 58; and therefore,the write attribute command for this sequential access storage device 50is not considered to be a media access command.

In addition to media access commands 60, the driver 36-1 may communicatenon-media access commands 65 (a status inquiry command, for example) tothe sequential access storage device 50, which does not cause the media58 of the sequential access storage device 50 to move or be modified.

To further illustrate how these errors may occur due to media positiondiscrepancies, a write command may be issued by the device driver 36-1to write a certain number of bytes to the media 58 of the sequentialaccess storage device 50. In the absence of a communication pathfailure, the sequential access storage device 50 responds to the writecommand and begins writing the received data as the media 58 is movedunderneath the device's read/write head. The sequential access storagedevice 50 notifies the device driver 36-1 upon the successful completionof the write command. However, if a failure occurs in the communicationpath occurs before the sequential access storage device 50 completesprocessing the write command, the media 58 may be left in anindeterminate position.

For example, the communication path may fail immediately after the writecommand is sent but before the device driver 36-1 sends any data.Therefore, no data is received by the sequential access storage device50 in this scenario; and the media 58 remains in its initial position,although without the benefit of the command response, the device drive36-1 is unaware of the media 58 being in the initial position. Asanother example, the selected communication path may fail after all ofthe data is written to the media 58 but before the device driver 36-1receives a response indicating successful completion of the writecommand. As a result of this scenario, the media 58 may be in the sameposition as it would have been had the command completed successfully,although, without the benefit of the command response, the device drive36-1 is unaware of the successful completion. As another example, theselected communication path may fail after some, but not all, of thedata has been written to the media 58. Under this scenario, thecommunication path failure leaves the media 58 in an indeterminateposition between the initial position and the successfully completedposition.

The sequence indicator 64 indicates a particular order in which themedia access commands 60 are communicated to the sequential accessstorage device 50. This order, in turn, allows the sequential accessstorage device 50 to detect whether a sequence counter is a duplicate toidentify whether a given media access command 60 has been received bythe device 50. The sequential access storage device 50 receives the nextsequence count, which allows the device 50 to further identify whether amedia access command 60 that has been received by the sequential accessstorage device 50 has been confirmed at the device driver 36-1 as beingprocessed by the sequential access storage device 50. With suchknowledge of the sequence of the media access commands and the commandstatus, as conveyed through the sequence indicator 64, if a path failureoccurs, the sequence indicator 64 allows the sequential access storagedevice 50 to undertake an appropriate failover recovery operation toensure that both the device drive 36-1 and the sequential access storagedevice 50 share the same command status.

It is noted that although implementations are disclosed specificallyherein in which the sequential access storage device 50 performs thefailover recovery operation, in further implementations, the devicedriver 36-1 may perform the failover recovery operation. In this manner,for these implementations, the device driver 36-1 uses its knowledge ofthe position information and the existing standard commands for managingthe position on the sequential access storage device 50 to send commandsto the device 50 to cause the device 50 to change to the positionnecessary for resuming operation. Thus, regardless of whether thesequential access storage device 50 or the device driver 36-1 initiatesthe actions to perform the failover recovery operation, the failoverrecovery operation uses the command status synchronization that isallowed by the sequence indicator 64.

It is noted that recovery from a communication path failure may not beachieved by the device driver 36-1 merely resending any outstandingcommands (i.e., commands for which the device driver 36-1 has notreceived processing confirmation from the sequential storage accessdevice 50), as the actual position of the media 58 by the device driver36-1 is unknown, without other measures being undertaken. Moreover, thedevice driver 36-1 may be unaware of the type of failure that hasoccurred and also may not be aware of the current position of thesequential storage access device's media 58. Furthermore, the devicedriver 36-1 may not be able to reposition the media 58 to the correctposition, without additional information or interaction with thesequential storage access device 50.

Due to the use of the sequential indicator 64 for media access command60, however, the sequential access storage device 50 and the devicedriver 36-1 are able to detect differences in the command status,thereby allowing the sequential access storage device 50 or the devicedriver 36-1 to perform a failover recovery operation when the sequentialaccess storage device 50 is notified about a communication path failure.

As a non-limiting list of examples, a “media access command” may be anyof the following commands that cause the sequential access storagedevice 50 to move the media 58: an ERASE command, a FORMAT mediumcommand, a LOCATE command, a READ command, a REWIND command, a SPACEcommand, a VERIFY command, a WRITE command and a WRITE FILE MARKScommand.

Referring to FIG. 2, in accordance with example implementations, atechnique 100 includes using a device driver to communicate commands toa sequential access storage device via a communication path, pursuant toblock 102. The technique 100 includes the device driver receiving (block104) a command from an application and determining (decision block 106)whether a sequence is to be added to the command. In this regard, if thecommand is a media access command, then the device driver adds (block108) a sequence indicator to the command. The command (with or withoutthe sequence indicator) has been sent over the communication path,pursuant to block 110. As further disclosed herein, the sequenceindicator allows the sequential access storage device to, in acommunication path failure recovery operation (also called a “failoverrecovery operation”), identify at least whether one of the commands hasnot been confirmed at the device driver as being processed by thesequential access storage device. Moreover, as further described herein,the sequential indicator also permits the sequential access storagedevice to determine whether a given command has not been received by thedevice.

Referring back to FIG. 1, in general, the computer 10 may be a “physicalmachine,” or an actual machine that is made up of machine executableinstructions 30 (i.e., “software”) and hardware 20. Although thecomputer 10 is represented in FIG. 1 as being contained within a box,the computer 10 may be a distributed machine, which has multiple nodesthat provide a distributed and parallel processing system. In accordancewith some implementations, the physical machine may be located withinone cabinet (or rack); or alternatively, the physical machine may belocated in multiple cabinets (or racks).

The computer 10 may include such hardware 20 as one or more centralprocessing units (CPUs) 22 and a memory 24 that stores the machineexecutable instructions 30, application data, configuration data and soforth. In general, the memory 24 is a non-transitory memory, which mayinclude semiconductor storage devices, magnetic storage devices, opticalstorage devices, and so forth. The computer 10 further includes one ormultiple host bus adaptors 26, which the computer uses 10 to communicatewith one or multiple sequential access storage devices, such as thesequential access storage device 50. It is noted that the computer 10may include various other hardware components, such as one or more ofthe following: mass storage devices, display devices, input devices (amouse and a keyboard, for example), and so forth. In accordance withexample implementations, at least part of the machine executableinstructions 30 may be executed in one or multiple virtual machines ofthe computer 10.

For implementations that use the network 40, the network 40 may be anetwork fabric which may include one or more buses or fastinterconnects. In this regard, the network 40 may include wide areanetwork (WAN) connections, local area network (LAN) connections,wireless connections, Internet connections, and so forth. In general,one or multiple protocols may be used in the communications over thenetwork 40, and these communications may involve such protocols as aserial attach Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) bus protocol, aparallel SCSI protocol, a SCSI for Internet (iSCSI) protocol, aUniversal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, a Fibre Channel protocol, anEthernet protocol, and so forth.

The machine executable instructions 30 of the computer 10, in general,may include device drivers 36 other than the device driver 36-1, as wellas other sets of machine executable instructions that form correspondingapplications 34. In general, one or multiple applications 34 maygenerate data through an application programming interface (API) of anoperating system 32 of the computer 10 for purposes of causing thedevice driver 36-1 to respond by communicating with the sequentialaccess storage device 50.

In general, the sequential access storage device 50 includes one ormultiple ports 52, which are coupled to the network 40 to communicatecommands, data and statuses with the device driver 36-1 over a selectedcommunication path. In this manner, the device driver 36-1 maycommunicate with the sequential access storage device 50 over a selectedcommunication path that is formed by one of the host bus adaptors 56,the network 40 and one of the ports 52. Thus, in accordance with exampleimplementations, the particular combination of a host bus adaptor 56 andport 52 defines a given communication path between the device driver36-1 and the sequential access storage device 50.

As a non-limiting example, in accordance with some implementations, theSCSI protocol may be used for communications over the network 40. Forthese communications, an “initiator” (such as a given host bus adapter56 port under the control of the device driver 36-1, for example) issuesa given SCSI command to request services from a “target” of the command.The target, in turn, includes a logical unit (LU), which accepts andprocesses the SCSI command. It is noted that given target may includemultiple LUs. In general, a communication path is defined by a giveninitiator-target-logical unit nexus (herein called an “ITL nexus”).

Thus, a different combination of the host bus adaptor 26 and port 52specifies a different ITL nexus and correspondingly specifies adifferent communication path. The device driver 36-1 may deem that thecurrently selected communication path has failed by, as examples,waiting for a predetermined time interval without receiving an expectedresponse from the sequential access storage device 50 or receiving anerror indication from the host bus adaptor 26. When this occurs, thedevice driver 36-1 selects another ITL nexus, i.e., selects an alternatecommunication path, for communications between the device driver 36-1and the sequential access storage device 50.

A controller 54 of the sequential access storage device 50 receivesmedia access commands and other commands that are issued by the devicedriver 36-1 and controls a media access module 56 accordingly forpurposes of moving the media 58 to the appropriate position andperforming the commands (writing data, reading data, and so forth). As anon-limiting example, the sequential access storage device 50 may be atape storage device, the media 58 may be magnetic tape media of thesequential access storage device 50, and the media access module 56 mayinclude the motor, read/write head, and so forth of the sequentialstorage access device 50.

In accordance with some implementations, the sequence indicator 64 is atwo bit code whose value indicates a cyclical count to identify an orderof the three most recently communicated media access commands; and as amore specific example, the two bit code may have one of the followingthree values: 01b, 10b and 11 b, where “b” represents a binaryrepresentation.

In general, the device driver 36-1 regulates the issuing of the mediaaccess commands 60 to the sequential access storage device 50 such thata single media access command 60 is outstanding at any one time. Whenthe outstanding media access command 60 is acknowledged as beingcompleted via a status reply from the sequential access storage device50, the device driver 36-1 increments a sequential indicator counterthat is maintained by the device driver 36-1 and stores thecorresponding value (i.e., the value indicated by the sequence indicator64) in the next media access command 60 that is issued by the devicedriver 36-1. Other variations are contemplated, which are within thescope of the appended claims. For example, in further implementations,the sequence indicator 64 may be a three bit counter that allows two orthree commands at one time to be outstanding.

In accordance with an example implantation, the controller 54 stores anexpected value 55 for the sequence indicator 64 of the next receivedmedia access command 60 and uses the expected value 55 to detect errorsas well as perform a failover recovery operation in the event of acommunication path failure, as further described herein. The expectedvalue 55 cycles according to the sequence used for the sequenceindicator 64: 01b, 10b and 11b.

The controller 54 compares the expected value 55 of its sequentialaccess counter to the sequence indicator 64 of a given media accesscommand 60 for purposes of determining whether a particular media accesscommand 60 has been lost. In this manner, if the expected value 55agrees with the value indicated by the sequence indicator of the mostrecently received media access command 60, then the controller 54proceeds to process the command 60 and increment its expected value 55to be used in the processing of the next received media access command60. If, however, the expected value 55 is different from the value thatindicated by the sequence indicator 64, the controller 54 replies withan error status to the device driver 36-1.

The sequence indicator 64 and the expected value 55 are further used ina failover recovery operation that is performed by the sequentialstorage access device 50. In this manner, the controller 54 uses theexpected value 55 in conjunction with a sequence indicator of acommunication path change notification command, as further describedbelow, for purposes of determining whether the device driver 36-1 andthe sequential access storage device 50 share the command status and forpurposes of performing a failover recovery operation to restore thestatus to a common state.

As a more specific example, FIG. 3 depicts an example of a technique 150used by the device driver 36-1 to process commands. Pursuant to thetechnique 150, the device driver 36-1 determines (decision block 152)whether a given command to be issued to the sequential access storagedevice is a media access command. If so, the device driver 36-1 includes(block 154) a sequence indicator 64 into the command. Otherwise, thedevice driver 36-1 does not include the sequence indicator in anon-media access command 65 (i.e., a command that does not cause themedia of the sequential storage access device 50 to move when thecommand is processed), as merely repeating a non-media access command 65does not change the position of the media 58 and as such, may beresubmitted after a communication path failure without introducing errorinto the system. It is noted that the non-media access commands 65 donot include the sequence counter 61. Pursuant to the technique 150,after the selective inclusion of the sequence indicator 64 into thecommand, the command is communicated (block 156) by the device driver36-1 to the sequential storage access device.

In accordance with example implementations, the device driver 36-1regulates the issuance of the media access commands 60 to the sequentialaccess storage device 50 one at a time, although one or multiplenon-media access commands 65 may be issued to the sequential accessstorage device 50 between two successively-issued media access commands60 or while a media access command 60 is being processed, in accordancewith some implementations.

After issuing a media access command 60, the device driver 36-1 waitsfor a confirmation from the sequential access storage device 50regarding whether the device 50 has successfully processed the command60. If the device driver 36-1 determines (decision block 158) that themedia access command 60 was successfully processed, then the devicedriver 36-1 updates (block 162) its count for the sequence indicator 64.Otherwise, if the device driver 36-1 determines (decision block 158)that the sequential access storage device 50 did not process the mediaaccess command (the device driver 36-1 receives an error message fromthe host bus adaptor 26, for example), then the device driver 36-1performs the appropriate corrective action, pursuant to block 160.

FIG. 4 depicts an example technique 200 employed by the sequentialaccess storage device 50 in accordance with some implementations forpurposes of processing received commands during normal, non-failoveroperation. Pursuant to the technique 200, the controller 54 determines(decision block 202) whether a received command is a media accesscommand 60. If so, the controller 54 determines (decision block 204)whether the expected count for the sequential indicator matches anactual count, as indicated by the sequential indicator. If so, thecontroller 54 proceeds to update (block 206) the expected count for thesequential indicator and process the command, pursuant to block 210.

Otherwise, the controller 54 communicates (block 208) the error statusto the device driver 36-1. It is noted that, pursuant to the technique200, if the received command is not a media access command, thecontroller 54 proceeds to processing the command, pursuant to block 210.After the controller 54 processes the command, including processing anydata associated with the command, the controller 54 communicates (block212) the processed status to the device driver 36-1.

Upon detecting a communication path failure, the device driver 36-1performs a technique 250 that is generally depicted in FIG. 5, inaccordance with example implementations. Pursuant to the technique 250,the device driver 36-1 determines (block 252) an alternate communicationpath for communications with the sequential access storage device 50,and using this alternate communication path, the device driver 36-1communicates (block 254) a communication path change notificationcommand to the sequential access storage device 50, which includes thecurrent sequence indicator.

In this manner, referring also to FIG. 6 in conjunction with FIG. 5, inaccordance with example implementations, a communication path changenotification command 300 includes a current sequence indicator 302,which is the sequence indicator associated with the last command issuedby the device driver 36-1. It is noted that the communication pathchange notification command 300 may include data indicative of otherinstruction, such as a key or identifier that identifies the failed ITLnexus between the sequential access storage device 50 and device driver36-1; a header identifying the command 300, and so forth. As anotherexample, the communication path change notification command 300 mayindicate a value, such as a key registered with the drive, which may beused to identify the host or may be a value such as a worldwide namethat identifies the previous nexus.

Depending on the timing of the failure, the device driver 36-1 may ormay not have received confirmation from the sequential access storagedevice 50 that the device 50 processed the associated media accesscommand. As a result, the communication path change notification command300 may or may not indicate, via a resend field 304 of the command 300,whether or not the device driver 36-1 is resending the commandassociated with the sequence indicator 302.

For example, if the device driver 36-1 did not receive confirmation,then the resend field 304 indicates device driver 36-1 will be resendingthe command, in accordance with example implementations. As anotherexample, if the device driver 36-1 has received confirmation of the mostrecent media access command 60, then the device driver 36-1 indicates,via the resend field 304, that the command will not be resent and thatthe indicated sequence count is the sequence count for the next commandthat will be sent.

Still referring to FIG. 5, thus, pursuant to the technique 250, if thedevice driver 36-1 determines (decision block 256) that a media accesscommand is outstanding (i.e., the device driver 36 has not received aconfirmation that the media access command has been processed by thesequential access storage device 50), then the device driver 36-1resends (block 258) the outstanding media access command 60 to thesequential storage access device; and this resent command includes anunupdated sequence indicator as part of the command.

If a media command is not outstanding, the device driver 36-1 determines(diamond 260) whether a non-media access command 65 is outstanding,pursuant to decision block 260 and if so, resends (block 262) thenon-media access command 65. It is noted that in accordance with someimplementations, a media access command as well as a non-media commandmay be outstanding, and the device driver 36-1 may correspondinglyresend both of these commands. Thus, many implementations arecontemplated, which are within the scope of the appended claims.

In accordance with example implementations, the sequential accessstorage device 50 performs a technique 350 (see FIG. 7) in response toreceiving a communication path change notification command 300 (see FIG.6). As part of processing this command, the storage controller 54processes the sequence indicator 302 of the command 300 and the resendfield 304 (see FIG. 6) of the communication path change notificationcommand, in accordance with exemplary implementations. In this manner,pursuant to the technique 350, the storage controller 54 determines(decision block 352) whether the communication path change notificationcommand 300 indicates whether the command that is associated with thesequence indicator 302 will be resent.

If the communication path change notification command 300 indicates thata command will not be resent, the storage controller 54 terminates itsfailover processing, as no further action is needed on behalf of thesequential storage access device 50. Otherwise, if the communicationpath change notification command 300 indicates that a command will beresent, the storage controller 54 determines (decision block 354)whether a media access command 60 did not complete, as also indicated bythe resend field 304.

If a media access command 60 did not complete, the storage controller 54determines (decision block 356) whether the expected count valuemaintained by the controller 54 agrees with the sequence indicator 304of the communication path charge notification command 300. If so, thenthe failed command was not received by the sequential access storagedevice 50, and no further action is taken by the storage controller 54.If, however, the expected and actual count values do not agree (pursuantto decision block 356), then the storage controller 54 determines(decision block 358) whether the actual count corresponds to theimmediately previous command. If so, the storage controller 54 performs(block 362) a failure recovery operation based on the class type of thesequential access storage device 50.

For example, in accordance with some implementations, if the sequentialaccess storage device 50 is a SCSI stream command (SSC) device, thestorage controller 54 repositions the device 50 to the startingposition.

Otherwise, pursuant to the technique 350, if the storage controller 54determines (decision block 358) that the actual count does notcorrespond to the previous command, then the storage controller 54communicates (block 360) the corresponding error status to the devicedriver 36-1.

If, pursuant to the technique 350, the storage controller 54 determines(decision block 366) that the resend field 304 indicates that thenon-media access command 65 completed with an error to be reported, thenthe storage controller 54 sets (block 368) a previous error notificationas active ready to be reported on the next command, if applicable. Ifthe storage controller 54 determines (decision block 370) that theresend field 304 indicates that both a media access and a non-mediaaccess command 65 did not complete, the storage controller 54 performs(block 372) blocks 358-362 and block 368 for purposes of processingthese commands.

While a limited number of examples have been disclosed herein, thoseskilled in the art, having the benefit of this disclosure, willappreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It isintended that the appended claims cover all such modifications andvariations.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: using a device driver of acomputer to communicate a plurality of commands received by a sequentialaccess storage device via a communication path; selectively including asequence indicator in at least one of the commands based on whether thecommand is a media access command; and regulating the sequence indicatorto allow the sequential access storage device to use the sequenceindicator to determine in a communication path failure recoveryoperation whether a command of the plurality of commands has not beenconfirmed at the device driver as being processed by the sequentialaccess storage device.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicatoris further used by the sequential access storage device to identifywhether a command of the plurality of commands has not been received bythe sequential access storage device.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe indicator is further used by the sequential access storage device toidentify at least one of whether a command of a plurality of commandshas been received but not completed and whether a command of theplurality of commands has been received and completed.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of commands comprises a first set of atleast one command that results in movement or modification of media ofthe sequence access storage device, and selectively including comprisesincluding the sequence indicator in at least one of the commands of thefirst set.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein selectively including thesequence indicator comprises including a counter value in each of thecommands that is a media access command.
 6. The method of claim 4,wherein the commands are communicated to the sequential access storagedevice in a sequence, and regulating the sequence indicator comprisesselectively incrementing the sequence indicator that will be used for asubsequent media access command based on whether a status received fromthe sequential access storage device indicates that a previouslycommunicated media access command has been processed by the sequentialaccess storage device.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: inresponse to a failure to receive a status indicating that a command hasbeen processed by the sequential access storage device, selectinganother communication path, and using the sequence indicator tosynchronize media position information between the device driver and thesequential access storage device, wherein the failure recovery operationis performed by the sequential access storage device or the devicedriver.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: including in thecommand communicated over the another communication path an indicationwhether a command was not confirmed as being completed at the devicedriver and will be resent over the another communication path to thesequential access storage device.
 9. An article comprising a computerreadable storage medium to store instructions that when executed by acomputer cause the computer to: communicate a plurality of commands viaa communication path to a sequential access storage device; selectivelyinclude a sequence indicator in at least one of the commands based onwhether the command is a media access command; and regulate the sequenceindicator to allow the sequential access storage device to determine, ina path failure recovery operation, whether a command of the plurality ofcommands has not been confirmed at a device driver as being processed bythe sequential access storage device.
 10. The article of claim 9,wherein the indicator is further used by the sequential access storagedevice to identify whether a command of the plurality of commands hasnot been received by the sequential access storage device.
 11. Thearticle of claim 9, wherein the indicator is further used by thesequential access storage device to identify at least one of whether acommand of a plurality of commands has been received but not completedand whether a command of the plurality of commands has been received andcompleted.
 12. The article of claim 9, wherein the plurality of commandscomprises a first set of at least one command that results in movementor modification of media of the sequence access storage device, and thestorage medium storing instructions that when executed by the computercause the computer to include the sequence indicator in at least one ofthe commands of the first set.
 13. The article of claim 12, wherein thecommands are communicated to the sequential access storage device in asequence, the storage medium storing instructions that when executed bythe computer cause the computer to: selectively increment the countervalue for a given media access command based on whether the sequentialaccess storage device returns a status indicating that a previouslycommunicated media access command has been processed by the sequentialaccess storage device.
 14. The article of claim 9, the storage mediumstoring instructions that when executed by the computer cause thecomputer to: in response to a failure to receive a status indicatingthat a command has been processed by the sequential access storagedevice, select another communication path, and use the sequenceindicator to synchronize media position information between the devicedriver and the sequential access storage device, wherein the failurerecovery operation is performed by the sequential access storage deviceor the device driver.
 15. The article of claim 14, the storage mediumstoring instructions that when executed by the computer cause thecomputer to: including in the command communicated over the anothercommunication path an indication whether the command not confirmed asbeing completed at the device driver and will be resent over the anothercommunication path to the sequential access storage device.
 16. Anapparatus comprising: a media access module; and a controller to:receive a command communicated by a computer to change a communicationpath between the apparatus and the computer and receive a sequenceindicator in the received command; and use the sequence indicator in acommunication path failure recovery operation to determine at leastwhether a media access command has been confirmed at the computer asbeing processed by the apparatus.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, whereinthe controller is adapted to selectively reset a media position of themedia access module based on the determination.
 18. The apparatus ofclaim 16, wherein the controller is adapted to use the sequenceindicator to determine whether the media access command has beenreceived by the apparatus.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein thecontroller is adapted to maintain an expected sequence indicator andcompare the received sequence indicator to the expected sequenceindicator to determine at least whether a media access command has beenconfirmed at the computer as being processed by the apparatus.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 16, further comprising a tape storage devicecomprising the media access module and the controller.